Thursday, October 26, 2006

For the first time in two weeks, the Canes played a home game. They pulled out an overtime win against the hot Thrashers 5-4. Certainly, you'd rather win divisional games in regulation, but they'll gladly take the two points.

Unfortunately, between working two jobs, the quality and quantity of posts here is going to suffer. This will be no exception.

In the overtime period, Anton "Yentl" Babchuk got the game winner. It didn't happen anything like what you would expect when you hear "Anton Babchuk got the game winner". You would think that he drilled a one-timer or a right point slapshot through heavy traffic whilst on the power play. You would think wrong.

Viva was down on the goal line to the left of the goal. He saw Babchuk in the high slot completely alone. Babs took the pass, came in on Kari Lehtonen, and used finesse rather than power to get the goal. He forced Lehtonen to make a commitment to an early shot. A really nasty toe drag move later, Babchuk lifted a soft backhander past the befuddled Lehtonen for the winner. It was the kind of fancy move that would make Alexander Ovechkin or Maxim Afinogenov jealous.

Tonight, the Canes go back on the road for the front end of a home-and-home with the Bolts. I'll have a better recap of that one.

7 comments:

First time poster:Love the blog, but you should explain your nicknames for players. While I figured out from context clues that "Viva" is Justin Williams, I have no idea why. Now, throw "Yentl" into that grouping as well.

I'm liking Scott Walker very much. I think I commented to your blog right after the trade that you would have to look out for a confused Vasicek.

I like Josef Vasicek, so I hope I'm wrong about what I'm about to say. It looks like the game has passed the Condor by. In the "old" NHL, it was okay to be a lumbering, big, strong guy who can get 25-30 "garbage" goals. The "new" NHL(and especially the schemes used by teams like Buffalo, Carolina and Nashville) requires speed and agility. The Condor has neither.

He was injured for a significant portion of last season, so he's still behind in the learning curve. His first game back, he blew up for 3 goals, but he struggled for the remainder of the season. In the playoffs, he looked exactly the way you've described him: lost.

If the Preds can find a way to utilize his assets (size, strength), they've got a good player.

As you well know, Scotty Walker isn't just a great player. He's also a well liked guy in the room. We're thrilled to have him.

Let me get this straight...two separate commenters are asking about the nickname thing, but you choose to ignore it? You obviously saw the comments in this thread, or else you would not have answered predguy37.

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